Cancer, a genetic disease resulting in abnormal proliferation of affected cells, is one of the most common causes of death in many parts of the world. Estimated new cases of cancer in the United States in 2014 were over 1.5 million (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers), and estimated deaths from cancer were in excess of 500,000.
One cancer treatment option is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs to suppress or kill cancerous cells, and is one of the most common treatments for cancer. Tumor cells are characterized by fast growth reproduction, local invasion and distant spread (metastases). In most cases, chemotherapy works by targeting various cell cycle pathways that are used by the tumor cells to promote their growth and spread. A chemotherapeutic drug may be used alone, in combination with one or more other chemotherapeutic drugs, in combination with other treatments such as radiation or surgery, or in combination with biologic agents, targeted agents, immune-therapies or antibody-based therapies. Certain chemotherapy drugs and their combinations may be administered in a specific order depending on the type of cancer it is being used to treat.
Clinical outcomes, such as efficacy and/or side effects (also known as toxicities) of certain medical treatments such as chemotherapy, are important for evaluating or assessing the effect of the treatment regimens. The prediction of the clinical outcomes plays a critical role for developing precision medical treatments. For example, upon diagnosis of cancer and during the planning of treatment options by the physician, additional patient information, such as genetic information or non-genetic information, may help determine the likelihood of a patient developing regimen-related toxicities. Currently there are no precise methods or systems that allow a physician to predict an individual patient's risk of side-effects or toxicities of anticancer regimens. Having such methods or systems would allow for the adoption of precision medicine for treatment of cancer. Predicting efficacy and potential side effects or toxicities based on genetic or other patient information requires an innovative approach because such risk may be associated with combinations of factors including but not limited to networks of genes functioning and interacting together.